Australia’s annual immigration intake must shrink to 200,000 people – less than half of the current 500,000-odd – to avoid overwhelming government efforts to boost supply and improve housing affordability, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said.

Emphasising comments he made last week at The Australian Financial Review Property Summit, Dr Oliver said such a significant cut was necessary and that official budget forecasts of immigration were “very unreliable” and understated the actual figures.